Wrecking Ball

Yesterday Neil Young’s publicist wrote us to inquire whether we’d be interested in posting free streams to “Living With War,” Young’s new Bush-bashing compact disc. Answer: Yes. I figured that the price was right, that a few readers would be interested and that they could make up their own minds on the merits of the recording. Here is our link to the recording (if I have understood the instructions correctly — a big if). We have in addition been provided the following links (I think):

After I accepted the offer to post the streams yesterday, Young’s publicist took a look at Power Line and asked me to give him a call. We spoke and he took the matter under advisement. I followed up by sending two admiring items I have posted on Neil over the past year.

After further deliberations, our request was granted with the comment that Neil believes in free speech. The publicist requested only that “you be respectful and make sure you don’t lead your audience to think one way or another…Also, please not a headline like ‘check out this liberal piece of crap.'” He added:

And please don’t think that I’m accusing you of anything…From speaking with you and checking out your site, it seems like you run things with the utmost integrity and I love that. You seem to have a classy operation over there.

In the spirit of my correspondence with Young’s publicist, I observe that the new recording is worth a listen. I add only that the recording’s low point is inarguably the one that has garnered the headlines — track 7, “Let’s Impeach the President.” Neil’s career includes some high points as a social observer, foremost among them his desolate confrontation with drugs and death in 1975’s “Tonight’s the Night.” In “Let’s Impeach the President,” by contrast, Young weirdly indicts George Bush for “cracking down on steroids/Since he sold his baseball team.” Is that an impeachable offense? Not unreasonably, Andrew McCarthy asks: “Do they give a Pulitzer for songwriting?”

Neil’s site for “Living with War” is here, and the related blog is here.

UPDATE: New England Republican likens my agreement (I should say “agreement”) with Young’s publicist to Google’s with China: “Something’s happening here.” If I understand correctly, NER believes that I am restraining myself (the metaphor breaks down at square one) in order to make a buck (and at square two). On this score too, our readers can make up their own minds.

Reader Dave Hagan writes to let us know that “I’ll give it a listen instead jumping to my usual conclusion of Neil’s opinions, which usually involves his being deported.” TW writes: “Saying that Bush lied is on the same moral and intellectual plane as Holocaust denial. When I hear someone insist that Bush lied, that person becomes a David Duke to me. The list of entertainers I can watch, read, or listen to grows shorter every month.”

JOHN adds: All true, but I still like the Google analogy. Does this mean we get to do an IPO?

CORRECTION by SCOTT: NER writes to point out that it is guest poster docweasel who is chastising me.